/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-ARGENTINA: Inventive Directors Conquer Crisis

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 19 2002 (IPS) - Argentine films are winning international

prizes at the hand of new directors and the industry continues growing at a

rapid pace despite the country’s economic collapse. From an average of 12

film premieres annually in the 1990s, the last three years have seen an

average of nearly 50.

The success of cinema in the midst of the longest economic depression in

Argentine history is explained in part by the fact that crisis tends to

motivate artistic expression, and because the expansion of film schools

here is beginning to bear fruit, say experts.

Unemployment, social marginalisation and loneliness are among the themes

of the new Argentine cinema. It is attracting great interest locally and

internationally because it reveals aspects of crisis that are often hidden,

director Manuel Antín, director of the University of Film told IPS.

Current productions derive ?absolutely? from the new phenomenon of film

schools, says Antín. All of the new directors are graduates of these

institutions, which have mushroomed from a hundred students in the 1980s to

more than 10,000 aspiring filmmakers today.

Many of the new faces on the film scene, attracted by the prestige

Argentine cinema has maintained since the 1980s, studied at the 30 film

schools existing in Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities, and produced

successful feature-length works – on shoestring budgets – as their final

thesis to obtain their degrees.

Such has been the case of Lucrecia Martel, director of ?La Ciénaga? (The

Marsh), Adrián Caetano, who produced ?Bolivia? and ?Un Oso Rojo? (A Red

Bear), and Pablo Trapero, with ?Mundo Grúa? and ?El bonaerense?.

These new films, all produced with scant financial resources and most

using unknown or amateur actors, were able to overcome the obstacles of an

economy in deep crisis, in which industry and commerce are on the decline

and unemployment and poverty on the rise.

?This progress in the film world is proof that Argentina is experiencing

a material crisis, not a spiritual crisis,? says Antín.

The French ‘Cahiers du cinemá’ journal backs up his opinion, with an

article published recently stating that the success of ?Argentine cinema is

inversely proportionate to its crisis.?

The phenomenon is evident both at local theatres and at international

festivals.

Among the movie premieres here each week, there are usually a couple of

Argentine-made films. October was especially good to the local film

industry, as six of the 10 that drew largest audiences were produced in

this country.

At film festivals in Europe and the United States, it is now common to

find an entire section of the event dedicated to Argentine films, which

over the last three years have garnered approximately 50 international

prizes. Famed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has said he would produce

any film by Martel (?La Ciénaga?).

Film school director Antín says his country has the precedent of being

the first Latin American country to develop a movie industry.

?Argentine film was born with film itself, prior to 1900,? he says. The

tradition continues, though with its ups and downs, because ?new blood

emerges periodically as a reaction to what eventually becomes

‘conventional’ film,? he adds.

These cycles of renewal have been occurring since the 1960s and always

entail a shift in artistic language.

In the 1980s, with the end of the military dictatorship (1976-1983), the

national film industry flourished ?because there was a lot to tell,? notes

Antín, who at that time was head of the National Institute of Film and

Audiovisual Arts.

?The filmmakers of the 1980s contributed to producing a history of the

repression, the torture, the forced disappearances (perpetrated by the

dictatorship) through numerous films that together won more than 200

international awards, and even a (U.S.) Academy Award,? he said.

In 1986, ?La historia oficial? (The Official Story), directed by Luis

Puenzo, won the Oscar for best foreign film. It is the story of a

middle-class couple that adopts a baby girl who is in fact the daughter of

a couple who were ?disappeared? by the dictatorship.

The de facto government closed down many of the film schools, but since

the return to democracy they have steadily grown.

?The advantage of having so many students is that the new films do not

all follow the same thematic line, as occurred in the wake of the

dictatorship. Instead, there is an enormous diversity of ideas. Each

director focuses on whatever he or she finds interesting,? Antín said.

In the early 1990s, despite relative economic stability, just 12 to 14

films premiered each year. But by 1995 the total jumped to 33, and the

average has only increased since.

In 2000, 43 Argentine movies made their debut, more than half were the

directors’ first works. In 2001, the total reached 48, a figure only

surpassed in 1951, with 54 films, during the ?Golden Age? of Argentine cinema.

So far this year, 44 nationally made films have debuted, indicating that

the trend will continue in spite of the economic and social collapse

Argentina is experiencing.